


Not a Replacement

by zhenyilani



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhenyilani/pseuds/zhenyilani
Summary: After another massive assault on Republic City kills a group of evacuees including Tenzin's wife, Tenzin asks Lin to help out with the kids for a while.





	1. Chapter 1

"Welcome back, Mom!" Wing and Wei exclaimed clapping her on the back as soon as she got down from Oogi with her sister and Tenzin's help.

"Mom!" Opal cried throwing herself into her mother's arms.

"How are you feeling?" Baatar asked gently approaching his weary wife more slowly than the children.

"Not quite a hundred percent but still a lot better thanks to Lin," Su replied glancing back at her sister who had climbed back onto Oogi to unload some bags from her apartment in the city.

"Dad!" Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo ran over, Jinora carrying Rohan. They swarmed him with hugs.

"You're back!"

"I went to get Lin and Su. The doctors finally allowed Su to leave the hospital—"

"You know, I could have just treated her here," Kya said with her hand on her hip and an eyebrow raised.

"Well I'm here now, so there's no reason to argue," Suyin reminded them as she adjusted the metal collar of Huan's robes.

"Mom, stop! You're crushing my individuality! I'm a metalbender too, I can do it myself!" Huan said trying to shake her off.

"You can't stop a mother from fussing over her babies!" Suyin replied simply swatting away his arms and straightening the last panel.

"Jinora, Ikki, would you mind helping Lin with her bags? She's agreed to stay with us for a while to help out," Tenzin asked his children.

"Really?" Jinora asked launching herself and Rohan into Oogi's saddle with a mini tornado.

"Woo hoo!" Ikki cried launching herself onto Oogie's tail to sit on the opposite side of the luggage rack as Lin.

"You are my hero!" Meelo said to Lin, landing directly in her lap.

"How long will you stay?" Jinora asked shifting Rohan in her arms.

"I don't know. I guess, as long as I am needed," Lin said leaning away from Meelo.

"So that's forever then!" Ikki decided untying her bags from the saddle and launching them towards the house with air bending.

"Ikki be careful with Lin's belongings!" Tenzin scolded, his bald head turning various shades of red in his fury.

"Relax Airhead. It's just clothing." Lin said sliding off of Oogi with the airbender children

"Is the chief- not in her uniform?" Bolin asked Mako as he, Asami and Korra emerged from the house.

Lin stood as Ikki and Meelo twirled around her with excitement, riding on their air scooters Jinora held her hand and she held Rohan. She was wearing earth kingdom green caprees and a tan tunic with green seams and a green sash around her waist.

"You can have the room next to mine. Then in the evenings, we can read together..." Jinora offered Lin.

"No! Lin will you take the room next to me?" Ikki yelled coming of her air scooter to stand in front of Lin and Jinora.

"But I'm in the room next you you," Jinora reminded Ikki, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly! Then Lin could be between us and act as a buffer when you get mean?"

"When do I get mean? You always provoke me!" Jinora replied.

"Only because you deserve it—" Ikki argued.

"Enough you two! Another word from either of you and you're SHARING a room and both sleep equidistant from me." Lin interrupted.

Both airbender girls fell silent and walked with Lin into the girl's dormitories.

Su and Kya chuckled while Tenzin and Team Avatar looked surprised.

"I can't believe it, the chief handled that surprisingly well." Korra commented once Lin was out of sight.

"I still can't believe she owned any clothing other than her police uniform," Mako replied.

"She didn't. I dragged her to the deserted shops in the city on our way here." Suyin confirmed to them as she passed them on the way into the kitchen wing in search of a snack.

In the the dining room after dinner, Baatar, Junior, Asami, and Varrik were working on the plans for a new Republic City located about twenty miles south of the the epicenter of mass destruction. It was a mountainous region that would be no problem to navigate for earth benders and air benders, but a pain for everyone else. The previous rail way system and maglev train only worked across flat land so, the engineers had to devise a method of transportation to work on steep slopes.

In The living room, Su, Kya, Bumi, Opal, Korra, Mako, Bolin, Wei, and Wing sat relaxing each with a cup of tea in their hands.

"Hey, do you guys know where Lin is?" Bolin asked.

"Since being tasked with the care of the air bender children, she decided to secure the perimeter of the island before going to bed," Suyin explained pouring over some paperwork from Zaofu.

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

"The perimeter of the island is pretty sizable when walking it on foot, so I'd say about an hour." Kya replied.

"Okay good, I've just been really curious, like REALLY curious, what were Lin and Tenzin like when they were together I mean, from when I first met them, I thought they hated each other!"

"It wasn't real hate. They just— made a couple mistakes; people change," Suyin tried to explain.

"Bolin's question was about before all that, Su!" Kya said rolling her eyes.

"They were perfect for each other in all honesty." Suyin said with a warm smile as the memories danced across the front of her brain.

"Lin was consumed with work,"

"Like always," Su muttered.

"And Tenzin was consumed with her!" Kya described. "He would bring her lunch at work when he knew she was too stressed to take a break to eat, he practically joined the police force to be with her. He listened to the police channel and suddenly appeared at the scene of every altercation that could potentially turn violent to protect Lin,"

"He even tried to learn how to fake metalbending and join the police force, but mom caught him and forbade it declaring he would be a distraction to Lin!" Suyin added enthusiastically.

"And Dad wanted Tenzin to to finish his airbender training so he took Tenzin on a journey all over the world for a few years separating the two for a while."

"And when Tenzin returned, they were both still just as in love!"

"And then what happened?" Korra asked.

"I don't know I was gone by then," Suyin replied.

"Dad and the white lotus had convinced Tenzin that he had to repopulate the air nation and Lin wasn't willing to do that. She was too worried that she wouldn't be a good mother no matter how many times Mom and I tried to explain to her that instinct would take over and she'd be fine."

"That was probably my fault. See, our mom was raised with so much restriction that she basically gave us all the freedom in the world. Lin took it upon herself and tried to raise me and when I started acting out, she probably blamed herself for not raising me properly," Suyin said with a sigh.


	2. Potatoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo want to help build the New Republic City, but have chores to do on Air Temple Island before they can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to see Lin to try using the metal strips that the benders from Zaofu used. So she made a set from her armor that she no longer uses and stores it on her upper arms and out of sight so no one sees just how much she is growing on her little sister, and learning from her.

"But Dad! I want to help build the new Republic City too!" Ikki whined at the top of her lungs as Team Avatar and Suyin's family prepared to leave on an airship from Zaofu filled with earthbenders, metalbenders, and engineers from Future Industries and Baatar's company.

"Ikki, how can we be expected to help anyone if we are starving. You need to go harvest the potatoes and other vegetables so we can all eat. When we return."

"But Dad! Harvesting vegetables is so boring! The acolytes can do that!"

"Ikki! That is enough! The acolytes are not servants. We must do our part on this island for everything to run smoothly!" Tenzin argued.

"Tenzin, you go with Su and Korra. I'll deal with these ones. If they survive the harvest, we'll meet up with you around noon," Lin said overhearing part of the argument from on the airship. She walked down the gangway cracking her knuckles and neck before pushing Tenzin aside rather more aggressively than usual and placing a firm hand on Ikki's shoulder.

"Trust her," Suyin whispered in Tenzin's ear as she helped him off the ground gently.

"Fine!" Tenzin huffed walking quickly onto the airship before he changed his mind.

"What do you think she meant by 'if' they survive the harvest?" Bolin asked Mako, Asami, and Korra who all simply shrugged. They all waved goodbye from the window of the Zaofu airship as Lin and the airbender children remained on the ground.

Lin stood with her arms folded while the children begrudgingly began to sift through the dirt with their shovels trying to find the ripe, ready potatoes.

"This is so boring!" Ikki groaned looking up at the sky with a measly little collection of four tiny potatoes in her pail.

"I can't believe you sided with our dad!"

"Guys, just hurry up and find enough to satisfy her so we can join the others," Jinora yelled at her siblings.

"You know, it doesn't have to be boring, and it doesn't have to take this long," Lin said shifting her weight. Only then did they realize that not only was she not in her police uniform, but she was completely bare feet.

"Well it's not like we can just use seismic sense to find all of the potatoes." Ikki groaned.

"No, but you can feel the movement of the air around you no?" Lin asked. In an instant, A strip of metal covered Ikki's eyes. She screamed. Lin kicked her heel into the ground launching a potato up in the air.

"Get it off me!" Ikki screamed tugging at the strip of metal that wouldn't budge.

"Catch the potato, and I'll let go of the metal," Lin replied curling her fingers into a fist, making the metal only more secure to Ikki's face. She groped around for her pail and held it in her hands waiting for the push through the air that the potato would make when it came down. Meelo and Jinora watched in awe as it came down and once it was in range, Ikki slid a few feet over through the mud and caught it in her pail. With a nod of approval, Lin relinquished her hold on the metal strip then returned it to a band on her upper arm, hidden beneath the billowy sleeves of her new clothes that Su had stolen for her from the abandoned shops in the old Republic city.

"Woah! I've never had to focus so much! It was so slight, the air movement, so subtle, I barely could-" Ikki exclaimed.

"Okay," Here's how the game goes," Lin said pulling Meelo, who happened to be closest to her off the ground. She took the orange strip of fabric around his waist and removed it, retying it over his eyes and placing her hands on his shoulders to stabilize him. "There are four hundred and eighty three potatoes in this plot, that means there is a hundred and sixty one of them for each of you to catch, and you can't use your pails. Only your hands and your bending, and if the potato comes down and smashes like a tomato, you lose a point, got it?" Lin asked. The kids nodded furiously. "You will go one at a time, Jinora, Ikki, if you will step off the plot, we are training now, and harvesting."

The girls both pushed themselves off the planting ground with their air bending landing lightly on their knees on the edge of the planter box. "You can make your pile of potatoes right next to me," Lin instructed kicking the first potato into the air. Meelo gulped and waited for it to come back down. He felt the slight push of air as the potato descended. He made a sweeping motion to redirect the potato in the direction of Lin. She dodged it and it smashed into the wall of the temple's kitchen as some Acolytes looked up from their dish washing with slight concern. "Minus one, Meelo, softer. I know it's challenging for you," Lin said in a low voice.

"And you," Meelo replied.

Lin frowned and kicked the ground again, this time, sending two potatoes into the air. He swept each of the potatoes into its own little tornado and gently set them down next to Lin's feet. She nodded in approval and slid her foot back ever so slightly launching a dozen potatoes into the air at varying heights. "Woah!" Meelo exclaimed feeling the slight pushes of air from all different directions, struggling to catch them all before losing their position once they returned to the ground.

Ikki and Jinora laughed as Meelo spun frenetically trying to catch each potato in its own little tornado. Lin barely had to move a toe to keep the potatoes coming out of the ground. Meelo was panting by the end of it. Lin closed her eyes and checked the ground. Yep, 161 exactly. "Now Meelo, count and wash the potatoes, Ikki, you're next."

Ikki tied her own blindfold and stood in the center of the patch and took an airbending stance. One, then two, then a dozen, and then a constant flow. Ikki got scared and while bending the potatoes into tiny tornadoes, bent air into her blindfold creating a space between her skin and the fabric so she could glance up at the rapidly descending potatoes. The gesture did not go unnoticed by the esteemed chief of police whose arm shot out slapping another strip of metal again onto Ikki's face, with a force that knocked her over.

"No cheating!" Lin reminded the girl. "I'd imagine the fabric would be more comfortable than the metal, but you leave me no choice, now continue." Lin said relaunching some of the undamaged potatoes that landing on the soft shifty dirt.

"Hmph!" Ikki stomped her foot and continued catching potatoes."

"Jinora," Lin said removing the metal strip as Ikki untied the back of her blindfold and set about counting and washing her potatoes. Jinora was fast and gentle with the potatoes, feeling them easily fall through the air. "I expected nothing less from an air bending master," She said with a nod of approval. After only seconds of watching the children scrub at the potatoes with damp cloths, she stomped her foot again and bent all of the dirt from the skins. "I'll have mercy on you, just put them in the sacks and take them inside. We still have beets and radishes before we can leave to New Republic City." She said walking off to the next patch of farmland. The kids bent all of their potatoes into the large brown sacks and rushed inside, anxious to meet up again with the others.


	3. New Republic City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evveryone helps build the New Republic City; Asami and Baatar Jr. invent something; Tenzin gets mad at Lin; Mako flies

They arrived early to New Republic City with the help of dozens of the best earth benders in the Zaofu and some other volunteers from other regions of the earth kingdom, four residential neighborhoods and the first of many planned town squares had been erected in just three hours.

"How are things going?" Lin asked Su who sat at a table with Baatar Sr. and Jr. pouring over some maps of the future city."

"Its great, hey, would you mind helping us? We need an even number of metal benders for an assembly line for Baatar and Asami's new joint creation."

"Assembly line?"

"Yeah, Baatar will explain."

"It was Asami's idea, maybe she should."

"It is called a cograil. It uses hooks and springs to bring the trains up and down the sloped rail at a constant speed, but even just making the rail ties requires extreme uniformity and precision. So I thought if each metal bender knew his or her part down to the smallest fraction of an inch, we could achieve that uniformity. Like One metal bender punches the form out of the sheet metal and the next bends it and the next connects it from pieces from another line, and the last pair of benders sticks it into the ground," Asami explained.

"That is actually a pretty good idea, so tell me where to go," Lin said raising an eyebrow in great interest.

Wing and Wei punched out the general form of the piece out of the metal sheet while Lin and Suyin bent them into shape, then Korra and Bolin fit the pieces together from the other two assembly lines and then two metal benders from Zaofu planted them into the ground.

In an hour, they had over a mile of the new cograil laid down. They were able to use it immediately to transport more building materials, metals, and glass up the mountain side for more neighborhoods while the rail team took a break.

"Lemonade, anybody?" Kya asked arriving with a tray of ice cups balanced on an ice tray hovering above her hand.

"Thanks," Everyone grumbled taking a seat on rock stools on either side of the rail watching a new cog train car click its way up the mountain side.

Kya bent a cup of lemonade into each person's hand.

"So what did you do to get the kids to do their chores this morning?" Korra asked curiously taking a sip of lemonade.

Just then, there was a grumble of a sky bison above and they all looked up to see Tenzin and the three oldest air bender kids approaching.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, Avatar." Lin said kicking her heel into the ground, shaping her chair into a recliner seeing Tenzin not looking too happy.

"You blindfolded Ikki with metal?!" Tenzin yelled with rage.

Lin shrugged. "She cheated on a game. I had to."

"G-game? You were playing games? I thought I told you to pick potatoes!"

"Dad we did pick potatoes, but Lin made it fun! Weren't you listening at all?!" Ikki yelled back. "We were complaining it was boring and then Lin said that it didn't have to be but we didn't have seismic sense and at first had no idea what she meant but made us realize that we SHOULD be able to feel the slight push of the air as something falls or floats through it like Daw did when that one bison poacher attacked him with that deploy-able net and so she made us catch the potatoes out of the air and then sit them gently by her side and count and clean them, and Meelo smashed one potato against the kitchen and I think i smashed a couple more than that but it was still barely anything and Jinora-"

"I get it! Okay,"

"I thought it would be better use of everyone's time if I trained while supervising them doing such menial tasks," Lin summarized.

"That is actually pretty brilliant, I should do that with Wing and Wei," Suyin thought aloud.

"But mom," Wei began.

"-we're not airbenders." Wei and Wing said simultaneously.

"Still you should be able to feel all of the earth around you," Suyin said.

"I would just prefer you not use such medieval methods such as blindfolding them with metalbending,"

"Hey its not medieval if our own mother invented it a rather short time ago, relatively speaking," Suyin replied with a dismissive wave of the hand that was so characteristic of all of the Beifong women.

"Don't worry Dad, we had fun." Jinora said.

"Hmph!" Tenzin grunted before departing on Oogi, leaving his children with the Railway building team.

"What's his problem?" Lin asked the children.

"I don't think I wanted our help rebuilding the new city," Jinora said sadly.

"I heard him say something about us being a distraction to the volunteers," Ikki said frustratedly.

"I'm not a distraction! I am a capable young man now!" Meelo declared ferociously before farting rather loudly, launching himself a few feet in the air before drifting down again with a bashful grin, blushing redder than the inside of a watermelon.

Lin's expression didn't change.

"Is there anything we can do to help here, with the rail?" Jinora asked kneeling beside Lin's rock recliner.

"I don't think there's anything you can do with the rail, but there might be somewhere else where you could be extremely useful in the building effort."

"Where?" Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo exclaimed looking up at her eagerly.

Just then, lin stomped her foot on the ground beside the ground and they heard a young man yelling in the distance behind Lin. The others looked up to see Mako flying through the air from wherever he was working in the new city to where they all sat on their rest break by the cograilway. The airbenders and Korra all helped bend the air around him to slow his fall to the ground.

"Who did that?!" Mako yelled, enraged.

Everyone pointed at Lin who just sat with her arms folded and the ice cup of lemonade in her hand.

"Do you know how glass is made?" She asked Mako and the children.

They shook their heads.

"Extreme pressure and heat applied to sand. Mako, why don't you help the children make sheets of glass for the windows of the new buildings."

"But chief, I was in the middle of-"

"Are you defying orders?" Lin interrupted before taking another sip of Kya's Lemonade.

"No," Mako said sulking off with the children.

"Here's some sand!" She said with another stomp of her foot generating a mountain of sand a small distance away from them.

"Who knew the Chief was so good with children?" Asami asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, it looked like you even had Tenzin jealous for a minute there."

"Hey! Don't think this changes anything!" Lin growled in her former, stern tone, standing up. She finished the remainder of her lemonade in one large gulp and threw one hand back dropping everyone's earth chair back into the ground causing everyone to spill lemonade on themselves. "Break's over, back to work!" She ordered as everyone fumbled back to their feet.

"Was that really necessary, Lin?" Su asked holding her arms out as Kya bent the lemonade out of her long black and green robes.

"Yes!" She turned and whispered to her sisters, "And I can't have the Avatar and her friends thinking I've become soft. I have a reputation to uphold."

Su just smiled and took her metalbending stance again ready to bend more parts for the cog rail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I rode a cograil up some beautiful mountain in Switzerland once, it was slow but a more efficient way to get up a mountain than a train that has to spiral or zig zag around.*
> 
> Also, when Wing and Wei say " but we're not airbenders" I was thinking of when Azula orders Lo and Li to fight in Agni Kai and they respond "but we're not firebenders" 
> 
> And when Lin launches Mako out of the middle of nothing from a mile away, I thought of when Toph launches a porcupine from the middle of nothing a mile away in Nightmares and Daydreams offering to give Aang acupuncture to help with his insomnia.


	4. A Sleepless Night

After just one week of building, nearly half of the Republic City evacuees had apartments and homes to sleep in. The other half however had grown impatient and decided to raid the camp where all of the foreign earth and metal benders were sleeping.

"They made a huge mistake," Officer Song of the Republic City Police Force said taking a defensive stance beside a Metal Clan Guard before they worked together to immobilize hands and feet in rock pillars.

"Ungrateful bastards!" the Metal Clan Guard yelled firing strips of metal to cuff the attackers who hadn't been immobilized by Song freeing him to make a call to the Chief of Police and Leader of the Metal Clan who were staying on Air Temple Island

"What's going on?! It's three in the morning?! Are you insane?" Meelo asked leaping over his father to get the phone.

"Meelo, hand it over. Tenzin speaking."

"Hello, this is Officer Song, is Chief Beifong available? We've been attacked!" Officer Song yelled on the radio.

"What? We'll come immediately," Tenzin said. On his way to the women's quarter of the island, he woke Mako, Bolin, and Suyin's children, Wing and Wei to help just in case. They rode with Lin, Suyin, Asami, and Korra to New Republic City on Oogi.

"I swear to God, if they're lying, I'll bury them in an avalanche." Lin said with her arms folded, tilting her head back with exhaustion.

When they landed, the Metal Bending Police Force and the Metal Clan Guards had all the attackers up to their necks in earth mounds.

"Why did you attack the very people who are giving their time and energy to rebuilding YOUR city?!" Suyin demanded the people.

"We are appreciative of their time and energy, but we're not appreciative of their method of who gets housing first!" a firebender said from within his confines.

"Yeah! They let rich people move in first while some of us with young children and new babies are left to sleep in flimsy tents that provide no protection from the elements!" a waterbender said from her earth confinement.

"Fine! Whatever buildings are finished tomorrow will be given with the families with children under the age of ten now go back to your own camp and leave the metal benders alone!" Lin groaned impatiently lowering all of the confining rock formations with one swift flick of her wrist before walking back towards Oogi and launching herself into his saddle eager to get back to sleep.

* * *

Lin barely closed her eyes again before she felt a shift of her mattress and the vibrations of a second person trying to occupy the space next to her. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry for waking you. I just had a bad dream, that the mech platoons that took my mother almost took you too! I was so scared," Ikki said softly.

Lin rolled onto her side and wrapped an arm around the eleven year old and held her close. "Don't be, Ikki, I will never leave you," she promised before drifting back to sleep with the child in her arms.


	5. Mommy Instincts

When Lin woke, Ikki was still beside her. She seemed to be sleeping sound enough for Lin to leave and go check on the other children. Still in her pyjamas, she slipped into the hall and peered into Jinora's room, then Rohan's room which was still in the women's quarters on Air Temple Island since he was still so young and needed to be taken care of. After checking on Meelo in the boy's dormitories, she decided to take a moment outside to breathe, sitting down on the steps to the girls dormitories for a few minutes before returning to bed.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" her inquisitive sister asked appearing beside her only a few seconds later.

"Ikki had a nightmare and wanted to sleep with me. She seems to be doing alright now, but now I can't sleep," Lin replied with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Why not? Whenever Opal or Junior came into my bed, I always found it so much easier to sleep. There was a comfort in knowing I was there, close enough to protect them from whatever bad dreams came to taunt them," Suyin shared, leaning her head on Lin's shoulder, while Lin simply rested her chin in her hand and her elbow on her own knee, gazing unseeingly at the ground before her.

"I just don't know how I can protect them now. Ikki, she dreamt that the mech platoon that almost took you and her mother, took me too and I just feel... guilty. I feel like I could have done more to save both of you. If Pema were still here, Ikki wouldn't be having these nightmares."

"Lin," Suyin sighed. "We, you, me, and Tenzin have discussed this already. You did all that you could. Nobody blames you for losing Pema. Nobody blames you for anything. It was war. Casualties happen in war. However unfortunate it is, it happens. We can't control everything no matter how hard we try. We're only human. And Tenzin's children don't blame you, clearly. They love you Lin, and they trust them to protect you like their mother would."

"But what If I can't protect them What if the next enemy that arises is faster, better, and stronger than the last, and I can't?"

"Lin, you've already proven to everyone that you can and will protect them. You gave up your bending for those kids. You can't pretend that that doesn't speak volumes."

"But they were still captured!"

"Only because that idiot airhead you used to date never stopped loving you and couldn't refrain from going back," Suyin explained, scoffing and flipping her hair back. Lin chuckled lightly, sitting there in the moonlight.

"He was kind of an idiot sometimes," She admitted.

"Sometimes?" Suyin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, often!" They both laughed and leaned on each other for a brief moment before Lin jumped to her feet with a start.

"What's wrong?" Suyin asked, her heart stopping for an instant.

"Rohan's crying," Lin said with a sigh of relief listening to him in the other room through the earth.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought you sensed an intruder or something."

"I thought so too, when his heart rate spiked, but he was just startled. Probably another bad dream," Lin sighed.

"You can hear him all the way from here?"

"No, but I can feel him," Lin said looking down at her feet. She didn't want to go to him too quickly else he would never stop crying, knowing she would come all the time.

"See? Your mommy instincts are already taking over, and you haven't even birthed one of your own!" Suyin exclaimed with a satisfied grin on her face, leaning back on the steps, folding her hands behind her head. Lin simply growled at her and rushed into the dormitory to check on Rohan. After a minute, Suyin followed deciding to come just in case her sister needed help from someone a bit more experienced with young children. By the time she reached the end of the hall, Rohan's room was empty. She peered into Lin's room a and saw her older sister already asleep again with the four year old Rohan peacefully resting on her chest, and Ikki by her side, all of their breathing perfectly calm and rhythmic, all their minds resting with ease.

Instead of returning to her own quarters again, Suyin decided to go wake Tenzin, believing this moment to be too precious to let pass without him seeing.

"What is it? Is the temple burning?" Tenzin asked leaping out of bed with a gust of air as Suyin took a step back with her hands up.

"No! I just wanted you to see something! It is Lin!" Suyin replied leading the way.

Tenzin let out a sigh of relief when he glanced through the open doorway.

"Shhh! Isn't it beautiful?" Suyin asked with the biggest grin on her face.

"I don't know why I ever left her," he breathed, barely audible to himself.

"Neither do we, you idiot!" Suyin said punching Tenzin in the arm rather aggressively before folding her own just like her sister, but smiling instead of scowling.

Part of Tenzin was jealous of his children for being able to lay so close to her without fear of judgement or ridicule. He longed to be with her again, beside her in bed, feeling the warmth of her strong arms wrapped around him instead of Ikki.


	6. Training, Then vs. Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lin spars with Zaofu Guards, Suyin, Wing and Wei using metal strips; Lin surprises everyone when she becomes a leaf in the wind

When morning came, they all worked furiously to finish building the various structures in New Republic City. The Rail Network was completed now and everyone was able to focus on housing in the various residential neighborhoods, marketplaces between the two, shipping and mail hubs, and train stations. The factories, parks, and aesthetic landscaping would all have to come later.

By the end of the second week, every citizen of Republic City had housing in New Republic City and it was time to work on the bigger buildings and factories. City Hall took a team of fifty earthbenders, engineers, and electricians four days to make. The Police Headquarters took a team of sixty metalbenders, engineers, and electricians to construct and install three levels of platinum, wooden prison cells in the basement.

"You know what is missing?" Lin asked her sister as they stood in the courtyard, admiring the new Police Headquarters.

"A statue of Mom?" Suyin replied with a smirk."

"Yup," the two sisters bent a pile of metal sheets and beams into a fifty foot tall statue of their mother outside the police station before walking back to their center of operations in the middle ring to meet up with Tenzin and get a lift back to Air Temple Island just off the old city for the afternoon.

"Hey, Su, I was wondering if you wanted to spar this afternoon." Lin said breaking the silence about a half an hour into their walk.

"Spar? Why? We haven't sparred in years. Even then, you always hated it because I always cheated."

"I just wanted the opportunity to try out those metal strips that are so common with your security force in Zaofu. The strips just seem so efficient and Kuvira really gave everyone a run for their money with them. I was thinking of redesigning the Republic City Police Armor to incorporate them."

"Sure, I could help out. I'd be glad to, actually. Would you like me to bring the twins and some of my guards from Zaofu? I get the feeling your officers aren't all that keen on potentially sparring you,"

Lin smiled. "I'm not quite sure I am ready to take them all of you at once!"

"Please! I have no doubt that the esteemed Chief of Police of Republic City, who busted whole triads in her twenties, could hold her own against a bunch of children now!" Suyin replied.

"I appreciate your confidence in me," Lin said softly, looking down at the ground as she walked.

* * *

Back on Air Temple Island, Lin met with Suyin, Wing, Wei, and Su's best two guards from Zaofu on the pentagon-shaped sparring grounds on Air Temple Island by the cliffside.

Lin had strips of metal on her upper arms, forearms, and shins. Suyin only had them on her forearms. The twins were both equipped with a pair of cables in cases on their hips, and the Zaofu Guards were armed with both the cables and strips. They all stood around Lin.

"Wait, before we begin," Suyin said thrusting her hand forward to blindfold her sister with a metal strip.

"I'm not going to be blindfolded on the first round!" Lin yelled throwing the metal from her face with an irritated grunt. Just then, one of the twins shot a cable at her. Lin instinctively tried to bend a cable that she didn't have and nearly got hit by a Zaofu Guard in the process.

"GO LIN!" She heard someone yell behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the airbender children perched on a ledge above watching intently.

Lin fired the strips rapidly, dodging and weaving strips returned by Su and her two guards as well as four sets of cables from the guards and the twins and rocks and pebbles from all five of her opponents. She was not as fast as Kuvira was a few years prior, but liked to think she was smarter. Lin remembered training with Tenzin all those years ago. She once saw him balance on one foot, leaning back, and blasting air with his arm and his free foot. So Lin tried it, sending metal strips from her arm and her leg in both directions to blind both Wing and a Zaofu guard. She struggled to keep control of the metal strips on their faces while battling the other three. The metal was in their proximity and under ordinary circumstances would be easy for them to take over, but she held on with incredibly strong power. She kicked her foot up sending the Zaofu Guard through the air, piling him into Wing before turning to face Wei and the other Zaofu guard, not realizing that her sister had taken a step back, to observe, and hadn't been attacking for a while, just waiting.

Lin turned to face Suyin in a guise to the other two, and threw both arms back, blindfolding them, and throwing them into Wing and the first guard before looking up to look into her sister's arms. Suyin lifted both arms as six strips on each side levitated. She curled her fingers, bending them into tiny sharp boomerangs and sent them all flying at her sister.

"Ow!" Lin exclaimed through seething teath as two of the strips sliced her arms as she tried to evade them. Then one nicked her side. She sent twice as many back at Su, but Su was better at evading and twirled between the metal strips easily. Lin's weakness was her reliance on being so rooted to the ground. Her stance was too heavy, and they both saw it.

Su did a one handed back handspring and then a backwards roll and threw her hand up from the ground in a very subtle motion, bending a strip up, covering her sister's eyes.

"Nice work," Suyin said nodding, folding her arms.

"Wow, Aunt Su! That was some pretty nice dancing when you evaded those strips of metal! I couldn't believe it! I thought earthbenders typically stood their ground and blocked their attacks, or faced them head on!" Jinora exclaimed running over with her siblings once the training ground was safe from flying rocks and metal.

"Traditionally, yes but time evolves and with the ever-increasing mobility of benders and non-benders alike, it has become more necessary to learn different styles if we hope to be able to continue to defend ourselves effectively," Suyin explained with a shrug while Lin trudged over to the bench to get a drink of water.

When Jinora set down Rohan, he automatically waddled towards Lin. Before he could come near enough to touch her though, Lin stomped her foot on the ground bending a tiny rock, gopher-mole figurine to distract him. Then it disappeared and reappeared else where, sending Rohan on a little chase around the training ground, amusing Lin greatly while the older airbender children spoke with Suyin enthusiastically.

"Aunt Lin, have you ever gone through the turning gates?" Ikki asked breaking Lin's concentration on moving the gopher-mole around the pentagon-shaped training ground.

"The kids were just describing it to me. It might be helpful for you to loosen your stance, and be lighter on your feet!" Suyin added, glancing over her shoulder at her sister.

Lin frowned and closed her eyes and sighed. She remembered trying it, a couple of times actually...

* * *

Lin was twelve years old at the time. Her metal bending training was interrupted by a call from the police station that required Toph's immediate attention, so the then chief of Police brought her and her three year old little sister to Air Temple Island, while Suyin was left in Katara's care, Lin was free to roam the island in search of her best friend. Somehow, Tenzin ended up dragging her to airbender training with Aang. He claimed it would be good her her to learn the quick and swift motions, but her brain had been unable to see it. The gates turned too fast, and all became one headache-inducing blur as she got beat up inside and spit out the other end looking no better than she did after a sparing session with her mother.

"Here, we'll turn the gates slower next time," Aang offered gently picking her up off the ground, not wanting her to be too discouraged to try again, thinking the cross-training would be good for the young earthbender.

"Of course you lily-livered airheads would go easy on her! Come on Linny, I'll teach you how to evade!" Toph yelled reappearing after a rather quick emergency run to the police station. She took Lin right out of Aangs arms and tossed her onto the sparring ground on the terrace immediately below the spinning gates and drew a boulder out of the ground and began to pelt her daughter mercilessly.

Lin dodged some, but most were too close together to fit between, so she punched them out of the way or smashed them to dust with her forearms until eventually they came too fast and she erected a rock wall to protect herself from harm.

"Toph, she's still just learning," Aang said resting a hand on Toph's shoulder, hearing young Lin panting behind the barrier she created between herself and her mother.

"Hey, I could do all of this stuff when I was twelve. She should be able to as well!" Toph replied brushing off the Avatar's hand from her shoulder before walking away.

Tenzin rushed to Lin's side once Toph was gone. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked wiping her eyes.

"She's alwas like this! I am not her! I am not a prodigy. I am trying, I really am, but I will never be good enough for her!" Lin yelled jumping up and returning the wall to the ground with a heavy thud, walking towards Aang.

"You are good enough, she just wants you to never stop learning. Maybe my dad can teach you earth bending, at least for a little while," Tenzin suggested wrapping an arm around his best friend's shoulder even after she brushed him off, seconds before.

So they did. Lin spent a whole week on Air Temple Island weaving through the gates learning earthbending and airbending exercises from Aang. Each day she became faster and faster through the gates. It was all so fun until Toph returned to see the improvement. Still the only effective defense from her mother was to stand her ground and fight head-on or erect a solid wall between the two. And it was from her own mother that she ever really needed to protect herself against, so she gave up on the turning gates and returned to her deep, rooted fighting stance whenever she braced herself for a real attack.

* * *

"I have, it has just been a while," she answered the children with a bit of sadness in her voice.

"Would you like to try again?" Jinora asked gently.

"Sure."

Su and Lin followed the airbending kids to the turning gates while the twins and the Zaofu Guards retreated to their temporary living quarters for a much-needed break after sparing with Republic City's Chief of Police.

Meelo started the gates with his airbending. Lin took a deep breath and ran straight into them, with her arms constantly moving and bending, stretching her torso to be as thin as possible as she weaved through the turning gates. She remembered which ones turned clockwise and counterclockwise, emerging from the other side unscathed, but drained. It took a completely different energy and concentration for the earthbender to get through those gates. She sat on her knees, catching her breath when she noticed some orangeyellow and red robes in front of her and looked up to see Tenzin, beaming.

"You still remember?" he asked seeming thoroughly impressed as he bent down before her. He wanted to touch her face so badly, to make sure she was okay. He wanted to embrace her with congratulations like he did when they were younger, but Su and the children were watching, and he didn't know how much they knew or what they would say.

"Hey! No breaks from training! Do it again, Metal Lady!" Meelo yelled running over to them. Lin just looked at him and flicked a pebble at his head as Ikki and Jinora burst out laughing, Suyin following with Rohan in her arms.

"After the next round, we're sparring and I am blindfolding all of you!" Lin growled with a smirk.

"But they don't have seismic sense!" Tenzin exclaimed.

"Didn't Ikki already explain it to you? The children should be able to feel the objects flying through the air like Daw felt the poacher's net coming towards him. As long as Lin doesn't change the topography of the ground, the children will be fine. Don't worry!" Suyin said with the signature Beifong wave of the hand while Lin went through the gates again with Meelo running along side her beside the platform.

"Done! Now you're going to get it!" she yelled jumping on him, engaging him in a tickle fight while Tenzin, Su, Jinora, and Ikki watched on.

"Besides, cross-training is probably good for them. Isn't it how Great-Uncle Iroh learn how how to redirect lightening? By studying waterbenders?" Suyin asked.

"I suppose you're both right. It is just so strange to see Lin here getting along so well with the children," Tenzin said turning to face the younger Beifong woman.

"Look out!" Suyin yelled shoving Tenzin to the ground with one hand and ducking, shielding Rohan with the other.

"Sorry Dad!" Meelo yelled lifting his blindfold. In the fractions of a second that Tenzin had turned away, Meelo and Lin had begun their sparring match and Meelo redirected a rock blindly, unintentionally sending it straight towards his father. He replaced the blindfold. Lin continued chucking up in the air and Meelo blasted each one away from him with a loud "WAH!". Then Meelo sensed a dozen rocks falling on him and created an air bubble blasting all of them away in all odd directions making everyone duck.

"Very good Meelo, Now Rohan, your turn." Lin said taking Rohan from Su's arms.

"Wah?!" Tenzin freaked but Suyin held him back.

"We don't even know if he's an airbender yet!" Jinora shrieked.

"Well then, let's find out," Lin replied calmly setting the baby down in the center of the sparring ring. She took a few paces back from him and levitated a pebble above her hand before bending it towards his little round baby tummy. He plopped down on his butt and looked a little upset, but Lin just raised an eyebrow. Nothing to be stressed about, and Rohan stood up again. She chucked another small pebble at him, and he stopped it with a tiny gust of air and a surprised look on his face. Lin smiled and stood up.

"Woah!" Jinora gasped.

"How did you do that?!" Ikki exclaimed.

"How DID You do that?" Tenzin asked in a whisper.

"I made him realize that it isn't pleasant to be pelted with pebbles and that he needed to come up with another solution. He could have just grabbed the pebble, like a non-bender, but instead, blew it away," Lin said simply. She walked over and picked up the four-year-old and rubbed his baby belly. "Don't worry, I won't do it again, not for a while at least," She added upon noticing the genuine concern on Tenzin's face. "Have fun training this one, he should be a lot easier than Meelo."

"Hey!" Meelo exclaimed while everyone else just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter is kind of choppy. It is kind of just four scenes that I wanted to create, but didn't really know how to bring together. I wanted  
> 1\. the sisters to honor their mother  
> 2\. Lin to fight Su in a not-too-violent manner  
> 3\. Lin to surprise everyone with her pretty decent "airbending skills" but also give a reason for her style to be so much more rooted in earth than Su's (because I don't think it is just because Su joined the circus and learned dance and gymnastics)  
> 4\. Lin to have an opportunity to bond with the kids.  
> 5\. And for her and Tenzin to exchange a couple of... 'glances'. Idk. Please let me know if I was able to accomplished my goals or if this chapter was a piece of shit in the reviews or DMs! I would love constructive criticism/feedback if you have the time to provide it.


	7. First Day at Work in the New City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lin and Tenzin build a new home: Air Temple Mountain; Jinora brings lunch for Lin; Lin tries the new metal strips on the Terra Triad; Tenzin gets mad about something

Suyin and her family were already on their way back to Zaofu by air ship, Kya on her way back to the South Pole by boat, and Bumi back to the United Forces by train. Everyone that had come in to assist with the construction of New Republic City was leaving now that the building was complete. It was not just Tenzin, Lin, the children, and various other airbenders, and air acolytes on Air Temple Island. Even Lin would have to leave soon, at least during the day to resume her work as the Chief of Police in the New Republic City. It didn't make sense for her to have to suffer such a commute, so they decided to relocate everyone to an adjacent mountain top nearby the new city and build a new Air-Temple Mountain with the help of Lin's bending.

They built their new home like the Air Temples were constructed, taking extra measures to make it extremely difficult to get to for non-airbenders. Specifically for the non-bending air acolytes they dug escape tunnels through the mountain that put the user out in the vast network of tunnels beneath the city created by the earth benders that built the buildings above and for the guests, and a gondola with a splice-able cable for visitors to use. It was guarded at each end by a pair of white lotus members, one metalbender, and one firebender.

* * *

When Lin arrived in her new office for the first time, she found a pile nearly three feet high waiting for her. Most of the reports were written for petty theft and minor arrests and various other violations and fines. The various gangs that shook the old city for the longest time seemed to have gone quiet. Maybe they were afraid. _If we could conquer that giant beast that practically melted Republic City a month ago, surely we could apprehend a bunch of relatively minor criminals!_ Lin thought. She smirked and continued flipping through the papers, sorting them first before actually reading. Petty theft and speeding could be dealt with by her secretary leading Lin to wonder why they weren't. She made a mental note to refuse to accept such minor offenses from entering the door to her office ever again. All she really needed to know about was systematic murders, assaults, abductions, and systematic looting.

The morning was dreadfully boring, but at least her new office had a nice view of the entire city, since the building was situated on one of the highest terraces of the city. Off to one side, she could see Air Temple Mountain perfectly, and realized then just how much she couldn't wait to go home. She used to use work as an excuse to escape the loneliness of the Beifong Estate that was in the city, but now she felt like she had so much to live for with the airbending children. Though she helped many people by trying to keep the city safe, Chief of Police was still dreadful work.

Just when she was about to throw a stack of reports into a furnace out of pure boredom, her thoughts were interrupted by an apprehensive knock on her office door.

"Who thinks they can just show up here without an appointment?!" Lin yelled irritably swinging it open with a wave of her hand. Her entire being softened when she noticed the orange and red robes out of the corner of her eye. "Jinora? Come in!" She rushed around her desk and closed the door slowly, manually behind the girl.

"I brought food. I remember Dad once told us how when you were swamped at work, you would forget to eat and I figured that since it was your first day back in a long time, you would might be swamped so, I brought you a little something. It is a recipe from Suyin's chef that Opal taught us how to make this morning after you already left for work. I hope you like it," Jinora said presenting Lin with a container of food wrapped in brown paper with twine wrapped around it like a present.

Lin smiled and accepted the package. "That was very sweet of you, Jinora. My only concern is how you got here."

"I came on Pepper,"

"Ah! Of course! And let me guess, he's on the roof now?"

"Yes."

"Jinora, as much as I love it when you come visit me, I want you to be careful. If the triads knew I am watching you guys now, they might target you for their next round of abductions and hold you ransom."

"Aunt Lin, I have been imprisoned by the Earth Queen and the Red Lotus and survived just fine, with help of course. And we helped take down Kuvira and the recent giant beasts that stormed Republic City, and made it out alive! You don't have to worry!"

"I know you're a very capable young woman, but I will never stop worrying about you, just as I never stopped worrying about your father."

"Even when you guys were apart?"

"Especially when we were apart. He was my best friend. And you're his little girl."

Jinora ran around the desk and threw herself into Lin's arms. She was crying.

"When we heard the news, that Mother died in the fight, we didn't know what do do. How we would go on! But you were the first person that came to my mind, and I think Dad's too! Still he was hesitant. I think he didn't know if you could handle us, but I knew it wouldn't matter because I knew- after Amon, I knew you'd do anything for us and- I am just- so grateful, Aunt Lin!" Jinora sobbed into her lap.

Lin rested a hand on the back of the girl's head and held it there until the girl finished sobbing, reassured that she wasn't imposing, and actually feeling needed for once. "And I am grateful for all of you," She said quietly.

Just then the door was thrown open and Jinora bolted upright and stepped away.

"Chief! There's a hostage situation at Kwang's Cuising on Haru's Avenue!" A captain announced barging into Lin's office.

"Spirits! What the hell do they want?" Lin demanded jumping up, and transforming back into the cold, stern Chief of Police that she was.

"If we knew we would have begun an negotiation, and not bothered you, but as it so happens, they won't speak to anyone but you!" the captain replied rolling his eyes.

"Now is not the time for you to give me attitude. Now go round up Units one and three. For the love of Heibai, they always know how to ruin my day! I'm sorry kid, but I'll have to eat when I get back. Stay here, okay? Stay where it's safe. I don't want you travelling while the bad guys are out there armed and active," Lin said kissing Jinora on the head quickly passing her by and following the captain out the door of her office, bending the metal strips that were laying on her desk, onto the exterior of the armor covering her upper arms just before she was out of range.

* * *

There were already a half dozen police cars outside the restaurant. Sure enough, about about a dozen members of the Terra Triad had the restaurant owners and several patrons, including a few children, tied up outside the restaurant with an earthbender holding a metal blade to the necks of each of the hostages.

"What do you want, Marzan?" Lin demanded with a tired expression.

"To annoy you, obviously!" the leader of the Terra Triad replied with a casual smirk.

"Well congratulations! You've succeeded, now release the civilians!" Lin ordered lowering into a defensive stance.

"Give us Republic City and all of its resources and leave!"

"Go! Enjoy that pile of rubble that your beloved overlord melted to the ground. We've already left. What are you waiting for?" Lin asked counting the number of gang members in the general proximity, sinking three metal strips for each of them from her leg and into the ground below her feet, positioning them below the gang members just so, waiting for the slightest movement from anyone of them.

"Give us THIS Republic City!" the leader of the Terra Triad clarified.

"Well unfortunately, I don't have the jurisdiction to trade this Republic City for a couple of civilians. That power resides with the people," Lin replied listening to each of their heartbeats.

The leader stared at her for a second before tilting his head to one of his colleagues, not removing his gaze form her. "Kill the youngest," he ordered.

Before the gang member could even tighten the grip on his knife to proceed, Lin reacted, throwing her hand up to the sky, blinding each of the gang members holding the hostages with metal strips. The other two metal strips for each one emerged from the ground, binding their wrists and ankles and lifted them into the sky by their feet. She spun, flinging them behind her in a messy pile while her officers ensnared them in coils of metal cables for arrest, leaving the leader of the Terra Triad alone.

"I see you've learned a new trick, with a new apparatus, apparently," he said taking a fighting stance.

"No, he's mine!" Lin told him. The first thing the Terra Triad Leader did was bend a bit of dirt straight into Lin's eyes. "You must be forgetting something!" Lin yelled, unable to open her eyes without them stinking. "My beloved mother made sure I k new that eyes WEREN'T NECESSARY!" She yelled evading his next attack bu sinking into the ground and reemerging directly behind him with inches between, snapping a metal strip over his eyes from behind, and binding his wrists before him with a second strip, then his ankles together with a third, knocking him onto his chest. She bent a bunch of rocks into a hand like a Dai Li agent and snatched up the gang leader by the back of the shirt, hoisting him into the air, spinning him around to disorient hi thoroughly before slamming him down into the ground. Her officers slapped platinum handcuffs onto his ankles and wrists and Lin released her grip on the metal strips, recalling them to her uniform. So they did come in handy.

It was a surprisingly quick and easy exchange for a hostage situation, almost too easy. Lin bent the dirt from her eyes and then blinked a few times to rinse them off before looking around suspiciously as her officers loaded the Terra Triad members into special platinum transport vehicles, recorded statements from the hostages and witnesses, and took pictures of the scene. Just to be certain, Lin retracted the sole of her metal boots and checked the area awith her seismic sense. Nothing seemed amiss until she heard the faint beeping of a bomb, just a few feet down the block.

"Everyone take cover!" She yelled stomping her foot, launching it into the air as it exploded high above the road, raining tiny bits of shrapnel.

One of her Officers took control of the metal pieces from the bomb, stopping them mid fall and bent them straight into an evidence bag that another officer held at the ready. Then they cleaned up astonishingly quickly and moved out back to the new Police Headquarters.

* * *

When Lin got back to her office, Jinora was right where she left her. Lin let out a sigh of relief as she slid the door closed and sat down.

"Is everything okay?" Jinora asked, her faced riddled with concern.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"Were there any casualties?"

"Nope! We got all the bad guys that we could find. There are always more that surface every so often, but each arrest is a step in the right direction," Lin said from across the desk, untying the bag of food that Jinora brought for her.

"That's good!" Jinora exclaimed.

"Hey kid?" Lin asked with her mouth full, holding holding a half of a meat filled rice flour bun in her hand, with her elbow on the table and her other hand holding the other half of the meat filled rice flour bun and her forearm resting on her knee as she leaned forward to Jinora. She wanted to change the subject away from police work, not wanting the topic to go any further with the potential to frighten the girl.

"Hm?"

"Would you like to help me design new armor for the police?"

At first, Jinora's eyes lit up with the excitement, but it only lasted a brief second before she became sad again. "But I am not a metalbender."

"That's alright. You don't have to be. I kind of already know what I want to put in it, but I thought it would be fun if we could do the aesthetics together."

"Yes! I would love to!" Jinora said immediately. Lin laughed at how excited it made her. Jinora ended up staying at the Police Headquarters the rest of the day, helping Lin go through paperwork, and even delivering a couple of messages around the build. That afternoon, they rode together on Pepper back to Air Temple Mountain.

* * *

"Jinora! Where have you been? You missed afternoon meditation AND THREE training sessions!" Tenzin scolded as the two dismounted Pepper.

"I just-" Jinora began hesitantly, glancing up at Lin for guidance of some sort.

"It's my fault. I asked her for her assistance today at headquarters. We were swamped by all the looting that went on during the transition from city to city and-"

"Do you realize the danger you've put her in?!" She is an airbender! She can't be concerning herself with-"

"I thought airbenders were supposed to promote peace and help people in the world!" Jinora replied. "How is assisting the police a bad thing?!"

Lin put a hand on Jinora's shoulder silencing her before moving her hand to Tenzin's. "Tenzin," she said softly, bringing his fuming head back down to earth. She waited until his breathing and his heart rate slowed again before speaking. "At no point was Jinora ever in danger. Only twice did even let her out of my office and that was just to deliver reports to a detective just down the hall. I would never put any of your children in danger." she paused then whispered, "Besides, she is already an airbending master; she doesn't need training. She could train others now and learn from their mistakes and triumphs." Lin lowered her hand and stepped away from him.

Tenzin took a deep breath and sighed. "I suppose." he said quietly before turning to Jinora. "But you're meditating twice as long tomorrow!"

"Yes, Dad" Jinora sighed not wanting to get into another fight.

Tenzin nodded to both of them before walking off to attend official air acolyte business.

"How did you do that Aunt Lin?!" Ikki exclaimed jumping into Lin's arms with a small gust of wind.

"Yeah! How?!" Meelo asked airbending himself onto her shoulders.

"Woah there, Kid, you're getting a little too big to be riding on my shoulders like I am a sky bison!" Lin said snatching Meelo off her shoulders with w metal cable around his waist, dangling him in front of her before lowering him to the ground.

"But how did you do it?" Meelo persisted.

"Do what?" Lin replied.

"Get Dad to calm down so easily?" Ikki clarified.

Tenzin was air, but Lin was earth. She kept him grounded when he got swept away by the winds. She reminded him of all that he had down here. The public thought that he was a passive, peaceful airbending master, and that Lin was the stubborn, volatile, unyielding earthbender, but with each other, they were quite the opposite. Their differences were what held them together for so long and balanced each other out so perfectly. When Tenzin got angry and frustrated, Lin brought him back down and when Lin became downcast and angry, Tenzin knew how to lighten her mood.

"Let's just say we've had a lot of time to learn each other," Lin said with a sweet smile thinking about hers and Tenzin's younger years as she walked towards the house to see who was watching Rohan this evening.

"You do remember that Dad and Lin knew each other for like sixteen years, then DATED for sixteen more years, right?" Jinora reminded her siblings with her arms folded, frowning at their immaturity.

"Why did they ever fall out of love? I know daddy loved mommy but, Daddy and Lin just seem so perfect together form all the stories Uncle Bumi and Aunt Kya and Aunt Su tell us!" Ikki asked.

Jinora shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't there when It happened."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter was kind of rushed! I was too excited about... the next chapter.  
> Please leave a review! Hope you still enjoy this fic!


	8. Lin: The Airbending Master, Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lin teaches Airbending... O__O

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

After a long and stressful day with three protests, over a dozen grand thefts, and reports of some unknown anti-president propaganda popping up all over the low-income neighborhoods, Lin could barely see straight as she rode the boarded the gondola home. Every night, the line was cut and when someone needed to get across, both metalbending White Lotus Members at each end shot the heavy cable at each other and fused it together in the middle then moved the gondola across.

She thought about the new armor design. It would take a while to design and manufacture prototypes, but in the meantime, Lin ordered her metalbending officers to fix at least a couple hundred of the metal strips to their uniforms. She had been very impressed with the versatility of the of such small pieces of metal in the hands of a decent bender. While Kuvira was a monster of a person, she was still a great earth and metalbender and Lin respected that. Lin would have to ask Kuvira's teacher to come by and do a workshop with some of the metalbending officers sometime soon. She was already beginning to miss her little sister anyways.

"AUNT LIN!" chorused the airbender children.

"We've been waiting for you!"

"Yeah!"

"We've staged a mutiny!"

"We thought you'd be proud!"

"What?" Lin was flabbergasted. "A mutiny? Why would I be proud of that when I enforce laws for a living?" Lin asked the children. "Why would you even need to stage a mutiny?"

"We don't like dad's training," Ikki began to explain, her tone changing from ebullience to sadness.

"Why? What happened?" Lin asked bending down to her level, tucking a loose hair behind her ear with one hand, resting the other on the girl's shoulder.

"He's just getting really- pushy. And I know he has good intentions, but sometimes he pushes so hard that the new air benders can't keep up, and sometimes he pushes even harder and even we can't keep up!" Ikki answered.

"I know he's hard on you guys sometimes, but it is just because he wants you to be the best airbenders that you can be!" Lin replied.

"I just wish we had another master that we can go to so it isn't always just him!" Ikki exclaimed.

"I understand completely," Lin said.

"You do?"

"Mhm! My mom was extremely tough on us, as I am sure you've heard the stories. Sometimes I ran away from training, OFTEN times I ran away from training, but even though neither Su nor I liked training very much at the academy, we didn't ever mutiny and take the entire metalbending academy with us, but we did sneak off. We just needed space to recollect ourselves and rest. It is perfectly normal to need time to reflect without constant berating."

"But there are other metal benders that you could go to for training! We don't have that luxury because our Dad is the only airbending master in the world!" Ikki exclaimed.

"Other than me," Jinora reminded her little sister.

"But he still won't let you teach!"

"Well, have you told your father what you dislike about his teaching?"

"Well, kind of, but I don't think it went across well."

"Hm... I'll talk to him tonight, okay? Maybe we can organize a break for you guys... or maybe I could train you," Lin thought aloud.

The children glanced at each other in a moment of confusion before replying, "Thanks, Aunt Lin."

* * *

After an eerily quiet dinner, Lin joined Tenzin in his study. "I heard about the kids' mutiny," She began slowly.

"Under ordinary circumstances, I would have dismissed them with a siple grounding but no! They convinced the entire group to walk out of meditation this morning!" Tenzin exclaimed with his face in his hands, fuming with frustration."

"I told them that it was unacceptable and how though Su and I walked out on our mom all the time, we never took the other Academy students with us. I also told them that it was perfectly normal to need time away," Lin said placing both hands on his shoulders, at the base of his neck, rubbing hard to try to ease the tension. "Remember sometimes when you'd come train with me and my mom when your dad gave you a hard time? Remember how even though my mom always returned you covered in bumps and bruises, you still would rather take it than another hour with your dad? Remember how I would come train with you even though it meant enduring hours of boring meditation and dancing through those spinning gates when my mom became too much me? They don't hate you, Tenzin. They just need time away."

"I know, I just don't know what to do with them. I can't just let them roam free! What if they get injured or lost or taken..." Tenzin replied taking his face out of his hands, resting his chin on his knuckles and his elbow on his desk.

"Why don't I train them for a day?" Lin suggested.

"What? But you can't airbend!"

"Hey, my mom couldn't airbend but she trained you sometimes. And I was the one who got Rohan to airbend. Besides, how difficult is it to supervise a couple of forms and dancing lessons?"

"It's not dancing its-"

"An ancient art form that was lost for a hundred years. Yes, Tenzin, I still remember all that Aang taught us. Don't worry!"

"But- don't you have work?"

"I am sure Mako can handle the station for a day. And remember? I promised you I'd help out around her." She said wrapping her arms around his shoulders, leaning her chin on his bald head. "And I keep my promises, Airhead. Let me have them for a day. You still have the other airbenders and acolytes. I'll even make them meditate if it means encasing them in a mound of earth to make them stay," she added scratching his bald head, leaning her chin on his arrow.

"I suppose we can try it for a day. Thank you, Lin"

"No problem, Twinkle Toes, Jr."

* * *

The next morning, Tenzin woke Lin just before the sun peered over the horizon so that she could wake his children while he went to rise the acolytes and other airbenders from their slumber. Lin dressed herself in green caprees, a tan tunic, and green bindings with silver strips of metal on her sleeves and shins, opting to go barefoot for the day. She emerged from her room and stood in the hallway, facing the direction of the children's rooms. She took a deep breath and proceeded to bang on their light bamboo doors like a drill sergeant.

"WAKE UP, WAKE UP! TIME TO GET YOUR LILY-LIVERED AIRHEADS OUT OF BED AND START THE DAY!" Lin yelled walking to the doorway, swinging the doors open after rapping on them each only twice.

Tenzin heard her from the courtyard and began to regret his decision immediately.

She threw open the last door and scooped Rohan out of his sleep pen. "I am sorry little one, but today is a very special day of training and not even you are excused from it." She said in a gentler voice before returning to the hallway.

"What's going on?" Ikki asked appearing in the doorway of her room in her night clothes with sleep in her eyes, rubbing her face with a curled up little fist.

"I'm your airbending master for today and I expect to see you all dressed and ready to train out in the northern courtyard in precisely four minutes, now GET MOVING!"

"And what happens if I am late?" Ikki asked defiantly.

"I am chief Lin Beifong of Republic City's Plice Department. Do you really want to find out what I am like when one of my charges are late to anything?" Lin asked dangerously, bending down to her level.

After a millisecond of consideration, Ikki darted back into her room, flinging off her sleep clothes while fumbling around for her air nation uniform. Lin helped Rohan get dressed since he was only four years old, then carried him out to the courtyard to wait.

"When she said she would talk to dad about him being pushy, I didn't think this would be their solution!" Ikki whispered to Jinora as they walked up the hill. When Lin looked up from the ground, she saw Tenzin's three older children all lined up in front of her from shortest to tallest like little foot soldiers. She plopped Rohan down next to Meelo than took a step back to look at them.

"Aw, I can still see the moon; it's so early!" Meelo cried.

"Enough whining! Follow me!" Lin said waving them to follow. She made them run up the mountain and through a cave along a picturesque trail that she blazed with her earthbending as they went all the way to the top of the mountain. Once they arrived, she dug her heal into the ground and bent four pillars out of stone for the children, and one across from them for herself. She used earthbending to launch herself onto her pillar, balancing on one foot then bending down with her free leg crossed over her knee.

"We will meditate here this morning," she announced firmly.

"But the sunrise is so beautiful up here!" Jinora exclaimed looking around in awe!"

"Yeah! I don't want to close my eyes!" Ikki added.

"Enough complaining!" Lin said kicking her pole launching the older children towards their respective places in line, facing away from the sunrise. She made Rohan's pole wider in diameter so he could sit on it and not have to balance on one foot, then she lifted him up and sat him down gently before returning to her pole to suffer with the older children, and clear her mind.

"I can hear grasshopper-crickets mating!" Ikki declared with a giggle.

"Quiet ikki. Now control your breathing, focus your energy." Lin told them taking a deep breath. The children followed. She made an earth support for Rohan when he fell asleep sitting on his wide pole, but none for Meelo, letting him fall off when he dozed and making him climb back on.

After a good hour, she opened her eyes and watched with approval as they still were meditating. "Are you ready to move onto your morning lessons?" She asked finally.

The children all opened their eyes. They looked moroe relaxed, almost happy.

"Yes," Jinora said with a happy sigh.

"Good, because my legs were beginning to hurt up there!" Lin exclaimed roughly jumping down and going to retrieve Rohan. "I haven't had to meditate for that long since I was fourteen!" They walked back down the freshly carved mountain path, leaving the stone poles at the top of the mountain.

* * *

The first lesson was the turning gates. Three children would turn it with their airbending while the fourth weaved through it and Lin watched on. Only when it came to be Rohan's turn did Lin intervene.

"Jinora, turn them slowly. Rohan, watch me," Lin said backing away from the young boy, stepping into the gates backwards, slowly and carefully making her way through.

"He has never gone through the gates." Jinora reminded Lin.

"Yeah, and Dad thinks he's too young."

"Nobody is too young for training." Lin replied beckoning for Rohan to come through. "Don't be afraid." She said bending down, looking straight into his eyes from the other side. Rohan seemed more impressed with her ability to weave through the gates at such low speeds than his own siblings ability to go through at blurring speeds. He bravely approached the gates and stepped inside weaving through, and getting banged only once or twice before coming out a bit sniffly but otherwise unscathed.

"Great job not giving up on your first job!" Lin exclaimed congratulating with open arms, squeezing him against her before rubbing his forming bruise and wiping the tear from his eye and the sniffle from his nose.

Each of the children went a couple more times, Rohan really getting the hang of it by the tenth attempt, emerging with no new bruises. Then they moved onto open forms.

* * *

"Today, we will learn a new form that I think not even Jinora knows!" Lin announced to the children, walking down to the three steps from the turning gate terrace to the training ground, holding Rohan's hand.

"How is that even possible?" Meelo asked his sisters. Jinora and Ikki simply shrugged and went along with it.

Lin set Rohan down on a bench with a couple of rocks carved to look like small ground dwelling animals to keep him occupied then stepped into the center of the ring. "Ikki, face me." She beckoned motioning for the other children to sit. "Just mirror my movements. You know how the air goes, I just know the motions." Lin said taking an open palmed stance.

The form was fluid and complex but slow. Ikki kept turning over her shoulder to see what Lin was doing.

"Don't think, just let your own wind carry you," Lin said repeating the form after sixty motions.

"How am I going to remember this?" Ikki asked. Lin could feel the eleven-year-old girl's heart beating rapidly in her chest.

"Don't think about it. Just feel it." The form repeated four times before finisheing with both feet together, and both persons facing each other and bowing. Lin could feel Tenzin's presence in a nearby bush with her seismic sense, but decided not to say anything, then waved Jinora to take her place while she went to scoop Rohan into her lap.

"Wait! I can't lead Jinora in the-" Ikki began to protest.

"There is no leader or follower. You know it just fine. Now stop thinking about it and just flow with the wind that you create." Lin snapped.

Ikki sighed and faced her sister and bowed. Fortunately, Jinora being the very attentive fourteen year old she was, learned and remembered most of it just by watching Lin and Ikki. It was such a beautiful form that not until now did Tenzin realize that it was entirely made up. Lin had taken bits and pieces of the forms that Aang taught the two of them and squished them all together into one long fluid piece. He was impressed by her ingenuity and rather than making them repeat thousand year old forms that they knew like the back of their hands and could not be more bored with, she made something new.

"Sink deeper into your knees Jinora, back up Ikki, don't forget your posture. You're holding back, Ikki. You need to complete each motion, not just in sparring but forms too! Extend your arms there," Lin said watching them closely.

Then Jinora did the form with Meelo, and then Meelo with Rohan.

Rohan's interpretation was nowhere near the original form or whatever Meelo was doing, but nonetheless was cute as little bursts of air came forth from his tiny hands and feet throughout. The girls could not help but giggling as they watch their baby brother's first day of airbending training being taught by a master earthbender.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of this unusual day continued in next chapter! :) Please leave a review!


	9. Lin: The Airbending Master, Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lin teaches Airbending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah...To be honest, this 'day' was the most exciting for me. This day where Lin is the airbending master, and the day where she helps the children harvest potatoes.

After forms, they all stretched then had another meditation session right there on the training ground before lunch.

"Now time for dessert!" Lin exclaimed once everyone finished their food, surprising them all.

"Dessert?"

"After lunch?"

"Usually we are only allowed dessert after dinner!"

"And even then only on special occasions!"

"Well today is a special occasion. I am teaching you! But, before you can enjoy it, we have to make the dessert!" Lin informed them. She gave them verbal instructions for Monk Gyatso's famous cakes and watched from the railing of the balcony outside the kitchen as they scurried about gathering the ingredients. They didn't seem to notice what they were making even as they made the crust and filling and put it in the oven. Lin was astonished. Tenzin never taught them? The meringue's were incredibly difficult to make even for a master airbender.

* * *

Lin was thirteen years old when she ditched her mother's metalbending academy again. This time, she managed to snatch up a belt with training cables on them that the older students in the police cadet school used before she left. She hid them in her satchel until she was safely out of the city, across the bay, and on Air Temple Island with her feet once again planted firmly on the ground. She had to tie the belt once she looped it around her tiny waist since it was too big, being built for grown men. She used her seismic sense to locate Tenzin, wanting to surprise him before anyone spotted her and alerted all the adults on the island of her presence. She decided to also try out the training cables and scale the cliffside just below the balcony that he and Aang were on at the time.

Though her metalbending skills were great for a child her age, she had not yet developed the strength or dexterity to manipulate such fine cables and fell halfway up after failing to anchor one cable deep enough to get past the shifty dirt on the rock face. She probably would have broken a leg that day if Aang hadn't sensed her presence the entire time with seismic sense, and turned the rock below the cliff to mud, making her fall much softer and more messy. Rather than being angry, Aang invited Lin to join them for Tenzin's lesson on how to make this cake. While Tenzin made an actual sweet smelling pastry, Aang had Lin make one out of a thick mud that was soft enough to not hurt anyone on impact, but firm enough to keep its form while flying through the air. Lin found his reasons for the consistency of her mudpie to be curious, but didn't question the Avatar and just went along with it since it gave her an excuse to be near Tenzin. They both set their pies out on the railing of the balcony on Air Temple Island to cool while Tenzin and Lin whipped up the ingredients for the gooey middle. Tenzin's was all white and frothy, while Lin's was all just dirt and water much to her dismay.

Still she was patient and went along with it. They poured their toppings onto their respective cakes and turned to Aang for instruction. Tenzin on his right side and Lin on his left. He showed how to use airbending to create air pockets in the topping on a real cake for Tenzin to replicate, then shaped it into a swirly, white fluffy puff. He then had Lin use earthbending to just create a spongy like mass of wet sand into the same shape.

"Now both of you follow me, Lin you just use earthbending, the motions are the same for this. Remember, it is an exercise for your aim and you only have one shot. Lin, I want you to focus on Air Acolyte Jinyu and Tenzin, you will focus on Air Acolyte Lu. Ready?" Aang asked looking behind him.

Young Lin nodded furiously, taking the same stance.

"Tenzin?"

"Yes, Dad," Tenzin replied not looking back.

"One, two, three!" And they all bent their cakes across the island aiming at the heads of the unsuspecting meditating air acolytes. The three of them all laughed as the air acolytes didn't even react as they were immediately pounced on by all sorts of small animals, eager to lick the cake off of their heads.

"Excellent work, my young pupils!" Aang said bowing to both Lin and and Tenzin.

* * *

Lin laughed at the sweet memory, as she sat on the railling with one leg up on the rail and her forearm resting on her knee.

"It smells delicious!" Meelo exclaimed leaning forward to smell the baking cakes. Lin noticed Rohan run up to the oven and pulled him back by shifting the ground beneath his feet. "Meelo, set a good example for your little brother. Show some self restraint and don't stick your head into a fire to smell the sweetness of the cake." Lin said dully.

"Sorry," Meelo sighed walking away from the oven.

Once it was time to remove the cakes from the oven, Lin slid off the railing so the children would have a place to put their cakes to cool. Meanwhile, Lin fetched herself a bowl of water and dissintegrated a mass of earth into it, then compressed it just enough to have the right amount of water, forming a clay cake with the same muddy consistency that she remembered Aang make so many years ago. She used the same bowl to make a fluffy light dirt mixture for her own topping then lined up beside the children and pourred it on together.

"You want to make nice uniform air bubbles throughout the gooey topping and form it into a shape like this," Lin said crafting her spiral dirt sponge. Jinora's was perfect, Ikki's was satisfactory, and Meelo's was fluffy but not quite uniform or particularly swirly. Rohan just succeeded in making two large bubbles in loo of a a uniformly fluffy whipped topping.

"Follow me," Lin said taking her stance.

"Wait we're going to throw these?" Ikki asked astonished.

"Not eat them?" Meelo asked devastated.

"And Daddy is down there meditating!" Jinora added.

"So? You don't have to eat the cake to enjoy it! I have no interest in eating mine!" Lin replied. "This is a test of your aim, and trust me, you will still enjoy it! Jinora, your target is Opal. Ikki, yours is your dad's Arrow, and Meelo, your target is Daw. Rohan, just get your cake off the railing and it will be enough"

"What will you aim for, Aunt Lin?" Jinora asked.

"I will aim for the Master Airhead's face." She replied biting her tongue. "Now, One... two... three!"

They laughed as Daw fell over and Opal screamed and Tenzin put his fists together bending all of the cake and mud off of him, and onto the group of airbenders he was teaching. Just then the group was swarmed by ring tailed lemurs all eager to lick the cake off of their bodies.

The children all looked at Lin for approval while she laughed maniacally. "Your aim is improving, mini Twinkle Toes!" she informed them all. They ran back into the kitchen before Tenzin could spot them on the balcony, but Lin had a hunch that he already knew she was behind it.

"Come on, time to spar!" Lin said brushing off her hands on her caprees.

"So we aren't actually going to have dessert?" Meelo cried.

"I don't know about you, but that look on dad's face _WAS_ pretty sweet!" Jinora declared still giggling.

* * *

First, everyone except Rohan, just warmed up with basic motions using just their hands for a solid ten minutes followed by ten minutes of just using their feet, bobbing and weaving and staying light on their feet before they were ready to spar. They rested for precisely a minute before Lin spoke.

"Ikki, Meelo, you're up first. Meelo, you can ONLY evade. No redirection of wind currents, no defenses. Just evading. And Ikki, you're on the offense. You will go for five minutes or until one of you passes out from exhaustion." Lin explained.

"What?" Ikki gasped.

"Toughen up, and BEGIN!" Lin ordered bending a rock recliner for herself, scooping Rohan onto her lap once again and providing him with a gopher-mole shaped rock to play with.

They all took turns being the evader and attacker. Then they sparred with one person attacking and one person defending, then finally free sparring. After a few rounds of that, they sparred two on one and then two on one with the evading person blindfolded, then the defending person blindfolded, then everyone blindfolded, and finally for the challenge.

"Now you get to spar me!" Lin said lifting Rohan off her lap and taking off her tunic, expecting to get warm, giving the kids a hard time.

"Who's first?"

"With or without the blindfold?" Meelo asked.

"Thanks for volunteering, Meelo! Blindfold off for now. I want to prove a point. You won't be able to last one minute against me."

"Bring it, metal lady!" Meelo yelled. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed, staring straight at Lin. Lin evaded one gust of air and stomped her foot. Meelo didn't see any rock rise out of the ground and struck again as Lin moved to the side and did a hook punch, and a rock flew into his arm and knocked him over.

"Hey!"

"Now, put on your blindfold so I can prove my point," Lin instructed. Meelo reluctantly tied his sash over his eyes. "Don't pout! This is a lesson. A learning experience. There is no such thing as a mistake. You must analyze every misstep and make a change. You can only improve after every battle." Lin said. He heard her stomp her foot and felt a small air current disperse as a rock rose out of the ground behind him. He dodged it as it came directly past his head and into Lin's own stomach. He heard her buckle with a grunt as she was struck with her own rock. It hurt a lot more than it would have if she had full armor on. Jinora and Ikki's jaws dropped in amazement and Meelo lifted his blindfold sheepishly.

"Aunt Lin, I am sorry!" He cried.

"Never apologize! I am fine! It is not a stab wound!" Lin replied standing up. "You did well kid. See what happens when you feel the air? Your eyes take time to see, and then your head takes time to think whereas when you don't look, your senses become more open to feel the world around you and you can act more quickly without being distracted by what is unnecessary. Now put your blindfold back on; I am going to go harder on you, if you're ready."

"I'm ready for anything now, Metal Lady!" Meelo yelled throwing his fists in the air with confidence. Lin took advantage of the opening and fired two rocks at him, one to the side and before he fell, one from the front knocking him onto the ground.

"Never let your guard down!" she reminded him. She had him sit down after that quick event and had Ikki step up into the ring. She was able to utilize both rocks and pillars with Ikki who held on well, bobbing and weaving and even throwing a few streams of air to block and deflect or redirect some of the rocks in the general direction that she guessed Lin would be. With Jinora, Lin was able to utilize the strips of metal which were a lot harder for an airbender to deal with since they cut through the air so cleanly, hardly parting the atmosphere or changing the natural air currents. Still, Jinora was able to sense it and evade almost every attack Lin sent towards the blindfolded girl.

Jinora lasted over seven minutes before Lin got tired and sunk into the ground, rising just behind Jinora to throw her to the ground.

"Why are they still blindfolded? They're airbenders! Not earthbenders!" Tenzin yelled passing by, enraged.

"Relax, Airhead. You should try it. Feel the rocks push the air around it as it flies through space." Lin said stepping over Jinora, walking towards Tenzin. She grabbed his sash, and bent the earth below her to lift her to be eye level with him. While she looked at his face, he couldn't help but to look at her form which was perfectly visible through her white tank top, even if just for a moment as she tied the sash over his eyes and took a few steps back. "Your eyes distract you when you spar. They always have, especially with me" Lin added. Tenzin realized then how foolish he was for looking at her and hoped the air acolytes, Opal, or his children didn't notice. "Just feel the air around you."

Tenzin knew he wasn't going to get out of this just like when they were children. When she wanted to spar, they sparred. With him, she did not limit herself to rocks or metal strips. She tore up the ground trying to knock him off balance. He just jumped on a vertical spinning air disk and rode around her. She jumpped on a liquified mount of earth and followed, spining without thinking, and firing a combination of rocks and metal strips in his direction. She pushed a boulder towards him with her feet and then a bunch of pellets making everyone else have to duck to avoid being shredded to pieces as as Tenzin dodged it all so easily. He could predict her movements. But she could also predict his.

Tenzin jumped out of his disc, flying over her while she slid across the ground and to her feet, still in a low stance. He just barely grazed the ground and she dropped her back and thrust her right foot and both hips up to the sky, launching her best friend up thirty feet into the air with an earth pillar. He managed to catch it and use his airbending to push himself even higher and then slow his fall. When his toe just made contact with ground, Lin swept aside the dirt beneath him disorienting his vestibular system momentarily, breaking breaking whatever stance he was intending on making, then chucked a boulder at his gut knocking him onto his back.

He wouldn't let himself be defeated in front of his children and as soon as he noticed Lin relax a little and stand up straight again, he sent a gust of wind at her feet, making her fall forward onto her stomach and face as everyone cheered.

"You're right! It is a good exercise," Tenzin said with a smirk, lifting himself off the ground with airbending while LIn got up rather clumsily, looking like she was about to explode and demand a rematch. "And children," he said turning to the children with the most serious expression. "Good work today with the cakes. Though Ikki, Meelo, the consistency of your meringue could use a little work." he said with a smile.

The children's faces lit up. He turned to face Lin who was rubbing her sore arm that she fell on.

"I can't believe you remembered Monk Gyatso's cakes!" he said quietly looking into her eyes.

"It was one of the best days of my life," Lin replied smiling. "It was a day I got to spend with you," She said barely loud enough for even him to hear. She could tell he wanted to kiss her in that moment, and she wanted to kiss him too, but it was all too soon, and she didn't know how the kids were grieving even though they smiled now. Sometimes the laughter was just a mask hiding the true feeling. Lin only knew that too well.

* * *

Opal ended up joining Lin's lessons for the rest of the day which included a few games of airball after sparring.

"It's like Power Disk!" Opal exclaimed after the rules were explained to her.

"I've been meaning to challenge Su to that, but we don't have an arena for it here," Lin replied contemplatively.

"Have you ever played before?" Opal asked.

"No, but I bet I can still beat your mom's ass at at!" Lin replied confidently cracking her knuckles, making Opal laugh.

She just supervised the game out of the corner of her eye while focusing on little Rohan's training. She tossed tiny pebbles at him, having him practice blocking and deflecting with his rudimentary airbending skills while Tenzin watched from a terrace above. Lin was so good with the children and seemed to be genuinely enjoying them. She was able to connect with them in a way that Pema never could. Pema, being a non-bender never really could understand the children's abilities or most of their struggles in training. She could only really cook, clean, read stories, and sometimes advise them on how to communicate with their friends and family. But she couldn't participate in their training or teach them how to deal with different types of opponents. But Lin could. She had so much valuable experience to share from living a life not completely sheltered on Air Temple Island meditating and reading ancient scripts. Maybe she was the perfect person for his children.

* * *

After a long while of airball, they gathered in the classroom to read about Air Nation History. This was the only activity that Lin had absolutely no interest in participating in. She sat at Tenzin's desk at the front of the classroom with her chair pushed out and her feet on the table top, watching the children read the prescribed text while she looked at the ceiling patiently thinking about absolutely nothing at all.

"How long has it been?" She asked the children after a good amount of time.

"Uh... about an hour," Jinora guessed.

"K. Long enough, then. Time for a pop quiz!" Lin said removing her feet from the desk, revealing a piece of chalk from the middle of no where as she stood up and began writing questions on te blackboard. "The person who gets the most right answers on this quiz is excused from morning meditation. The person who gets the lowest number of questions right has to wake an extra hour early for meditation and help out with the laundry for a week!" Lin told everyone. The children moaned in protest only to be ignored.

Rohan ended up with laundry duty and Jinora got to sleep in, but being the good little airbending master she was, decided to wake up anyways because the view from the top of Air Temple Mountain was just too beautiful to miss even for one morning.

After a long discussion about the children's air bending training, that day, Lin and Tenzin decided that Tenzin would train the children five days a week and Lin would train them one and a half days a week and reduce her hours so that she would be available to dine with them every evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the cake flashback with Aang and Gyatso, rewatch ATLA Book 1 Episode 3, ~ minute 14:15. :)))))
> 
> Please leave a review if you have time. Constructive criticism is preferred, but all criticism is welcome!
> 
> Goodnight world, it is 1:17 AM here and... save! This chapter is complete. :)


	10. Changing of the Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zaofu Guards come to protect Lin's sanity :)

There was an explosion, a fire, and several screams. Lin leapt out of her bed and ran into the smoke filled hall. She used her seismic sense to locate all of the children and ran deeper into the smoke to grab them before they asphyxiated or burned. She snatched up Rohan first then Ikki and jumped out of the window while Jinora flew out on her own with her glider to the courtyard.

"What happened?" Tenzin demanded appearing with Meelo and a bunch of other air acolytes.

"I don't know, but I am going to find out!" Lin replied thrusting Rohan into his arms before running back into the smoke filled building. She raised a wall of earth the size of the fire and kicked it down the straight hallway, smothering out the fire against the opposite wall then used her seismic sense to try to find any tunnels beneath the dormitories or anyone trying to flee the scene. There was a new tunnel, no doubt, but she couldn't sense anyone running through it. Lin sunk herself into the ground and into the tunnel and ran down it as far as it would go. Dead end. Whomever tried to sneak into their house must have been an earthbender and must still be close, unless whatever exploded had a timer...

After a few more seconds contemplating the possibilities there in the darkness, she launched herself through the earth and resurfaced to find the waterbending members of the white lotus dampening the rest of the smoke, and putting out the remaining small fires.

"Lin!" Ikki's cries of terror cut through the night as she raced towards Lin with assistance from her airbending. "Please please please don't leave us again! Please!" Ikki begged with tears streaming down her face as she clutched Lin's dirt-covered pyjamas.

"When did I leave you? I've been close the whole time," Lin replied returning the hug in an effort to comfort the distraught child.

"Just now! You ran into a burning building to try to go after whoever it was! They could have hurt you! Please, Can't you just stay with us? We are stronger together! We can protect each other! Please?!" Ikki cried hiccuping between words. She looked truly terrified. Lin glanced sideways at Jinora and Meelo who seemed to agree with their sister, then she turned to Tenzin who reached out to rest an arm on her shoulder.

"You worried us all when you ran back towards the fire. Did you at least find anything?"

"No. Just a new escape tunnel that wasn't planned to be dug for anybody." Lin replied accepting a hug from him as well. "Someone wanted to get to the children, clearly."

The boys all had to double and triple up in their rooms to make room for the girls to occupy have the rooms in the boy's dormitories while the girls' ones were being repaired. Air Temple Mountain didn't seem as safe anymore. It resembled the original Air Temples greatly, but was still just stone structures on a mountain of earth. Any earth bender could carve their way up to it and apparently they had new enemies. Lin settled in a room with Jinora, Ikki, Opal, and Rohan, but couldn't fall asleep. She didn't want to leave for work in the city the next morning and she didn't trust the useless White Lotus members anymore. As Chief of Police, she had command of the entire police force, but didn't want to exploit that authority for selfish reasons like protecting her loved ones. She was still heir to the Beifong estate, she could hire guards. But they have no loyalty. Anyone could come by and offer a higher price and they would gladly step aside.

"I am not letting you pay for guards, Lin!" Suyin yelled after Lin called her for advice on security for her family. "You're family, Lin and if you need them, take them. Their oath of loyalty is to our family name. I can send an airship with two dozen of them by this evening. They work in shifts and can feed themselves..."

"I appreciate your offer, but I should probably speak to Tenzin first-"

"Nonsense, Lin! The Zaofu guards are the best in the entire Earth Kingdom. All of them are trained in seismic sense and truth-seeing. They could probably give your police force a run for their money, if I don't say so myself,"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Lin groaned. "Look, I didn't ask for a security force, I just wanted ways to keep my- Tenzin's children safe while we're both at work."

"I understand completely! In which case, I'll send three dozen!"

"Su!"

"I'll speak to you later, Baatar is calling me! Cheers, Lin!"

Lin growled as she heard her sister hang up the phone.

"What did she say?" Tenzin asked curiously as he followed Lin to the gondola the next morning.

"Apparently she's sending THREE dozen Zaofu guards here to look over the mountain,"

"Don't you think all this is sending the wrong message? I mean, three dozen guards from ZAOFU?"

"That's what I thought at first, but as time passed I realized it is necessary to keep your children safe. Earthbenders are the only other ones who can get up here and hurt the children and the Zaofu Guards are trained in seismic sense..."

"But we're airbenders. We're supposed to be a peaceful-"

"Look, Tenzin! Think of it this way. The guards from Zaofu are not here to protect you, persay. They are here to protect me and my SANITY. I cannot rest or focus on anything at work unless I know you and your children are safe."

"Lin!"

"I have an idea! Once they arrive, try them. If you decide you don't like them, try to make them leave! I dare you! Apparently they have orders to only answer to me!" Lin said jumping onto the gondola and metal bending the door jammed shut so Tenzin couldn't walk on after her.

"Lin!" He yelled following. With a subtle raise of a hand, she bent a stone wall between him and the gondola, stopping him dead in his tracks.

* * *

That evening, Lin returned from work with a cart filled with sheets of metal.

"What is all this?" Tenzin asked indicating the delivery.

"Supplies. Jinora agreed to help me design new armor for the police force. Now I know you don't like her getting involved with anything that isn't explicitly direct humanitarian work, but I assure you, she will only be judging the aesthetics. I will be deciding everything involving the weaponry," Lin said firmly, walking past him without another word.

"Ready kid?" She asked passing a courtyard where Jinora and Opal were practicing a form.

"Can I come too?" Opal asked.

"Of course!" Lin said with a smile.

Tenzin sighed in frustration and boarded the gondola to ride into the city. Somehow, he found himself on the front steps to the Sato Mansion in the upper ring of the city.

"Tenzin?" Bolin exclaimed, shocked to see the airbending master looking so glum on the steps.

"Can I come in?" Tenzin asked.

"Sure, what's up? Everyone is taking dinner by the pool in the back yard!" Bolin said enthusiastically.

"It's Lin, she's just- so stubborn!"

"Are you just finding that out now, because it's kiiiiind of obvious," Bolin whispered.

"I just thought... things would be different this time around. I mean, Su always talks about how people change and I just thought ... Oh never mind! I don't know why I came here! I'll just go-" Tenzin said turning around and hurrying towards the door.

"No! Staaay! Maybe Mako can help! He's better at giving advice than me and he's been with loads of ladies! Now, I don't know much about your private life, and no offense but from what I've heard, you only ever dated one girl in your life and that's Beifong,"

"What do you call Pema?"

"Well based on what your brother told us, you kind of just married her and started having kids; there was never really any dating."

"Krimeney! I'll have to have a word with him." Tenzin grumbled.

"Come on, MAAAAKOOOOOOOO! Tenzin needs your help!" Bolin yelled throwing an arm around the old man.

"What happened?" Korra and Asami asked appearing first.

"NOPE NOPE! I only need Mako! We have to duscuss very private and sensitive MAN stuff!" Bolin said shooing them away.

"Is it about Beifong?" Korra asked smirking.

"It's not- hmph!" Tenzin fumed, his head turning various shades of crimson with his rage and humiliation as Korra and Asami walked away laughing.

* * *

"Okay, so the daggers in the sleeves stay, there will be two sets of cables. I am keeping the ones I have threaded through the sleeves, and I am replacing the ones on the hips, but instead of having the spools on the back just open, I am thinking of covering it with metal plates like this," Lin said bending a sheet of metal into thin uniform slices, stacking them, and slapping them onto the backpiece of the prototype standing up on the table, covering the spools of cable.

"It looks like Kuvira's armor kind of," Jinora commented.

"But with a LOT more metal," Opal commented.

"It gives more wearer more options though. Previously, Lin only had the cables and daggers. Now she can fling these things at anybody and be protected from a fall of blow to the back while preserving the integrity of the spools there," Jinora said.

"My thoughts exactly. Now for the sleeves. The average metal bender has an accuracy score of 40%," Lin began to say.

"Wow! That's actually really low," Opal muttered making a face.

"So, if you equip one with at least a hundred strips of metal, one should be able to make at least forty hits. Now the real question, is should they go here, or here?" Lin asked lifting six stacks of metal strips onto to the upper arm and then moving it to the lower arm.

"What do you think of an asymmetrical look? You could do one high and one low," Opal suggested.

"I hate asymmetrical looks." Lin replied instantly.

"You could put one complete set on the upper arms and lower arms," Opal thought aloud.

"Wouldn't that be too heavy, though? A metalbender must allocate some of their bending just to maintaining the armor so that it will move with them as they move. That leaves less bending capacity available to focus on the fight in front of them," Jinora mused.

"Good point. So we're back down to one set on each arm. Upper or lower?" Lin asked.

"Lower, because there's already a lot of metal up top with the new shoulder pads and collar." Jinora decided definitively.

"Full bands or triangular?" Lin asked slicing off two corners of each stack of metal strips by curling her fourth finger ever so slightly.

"Full bands! It gives you more material to work with!" Opal declared. Lin straightened her fourth finger again and the cut off metal returned to the stacks, fusing back together into rectangular strips.

"If the bands are long enough, you can bend them into fitted rings. Then you don't have to waste your bending to keep them stuck together. They'll just sit there," Jinora added.

Lin elongated the strips and bent them onto the lower part of the new gauntlets.

"Okay and the collar?"

"Eh, I don't think it is necessary. It's just a thing my mom liked to do that several women in Zaofu copied," Opal said waving her hand like all the other women in her family did.

"Fair enough," Lin said scrapping pre-cut strips of metal.

"Legs, shins?"

"Definitely."

"Lastly, I want to line the armor with a non-conductive fabric. After the equalist movement, non-benders everywhere have been buying those electric gloves declaring it a weapon of self defense. They say it is no different than a spear or sword. It's bullshit in my opinion. You don't need training for a glove. Either way, a fabric lining would provide insulation against the electricity," Lin said unfolding a large piece of black fabric, laying it out over several desks.

"Wouldn't you overheat?" Opal asked.

"With most fabrics yes, but I have had this one in development for a few years. It is specially designed to wick moisture away from the body and allow air to flow through more easily," Lin replied.

"Woah!" Jinora gasped as Lin used metalbending to manipulate the scissors, cutting out the pattern of the dress. She had to thread the needle herself, but then could use metalbending to guide it along the seam, making uniform stitches with little effort in no time.

"I wish I was a metalbender," Jinora sighed longingly. Lin frowned at her. "Sometimes," she added.

Lin tilted her head in suspicion. "Okay, I guess I'll take that."

"Aunt Lin, did you ever wish you could bend a different element?" Jinora asked as Lin bit the thread and tore the needle off before tying a knot.

"Every day growing up," Lin replied absentmindedly placing the needle back into the pin cushion, lifting the black and green dress up to against her body.

"Which element did you want to bend?" Jinora asked.

"Air," she replied without hesitation.

"Why?"

"So I could..." _spend every day training with Tenzin._ She began but stopped when she felt the familiar footsteps of her best friend approaching the classroom.

"Hey, ladies. How is the new uniform coming along?" Tenzin asked appearing in the doorway of the classroom where Opal and Jinora were kneeling on the tables watching Lin craft the new armor and uniform.

"It's getting there," Opal replied enthusiastically.

"May I see it?" Tenzin asked.

It was a reasonable request but Lin still huffed and tuned her back to him. Opal spun the armor around on the desk so Tenzin could see it from every angle.

"It looks great!" Tenzin said with a smile.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Jinora asked.

"Maybe something emerald or green to represent your Earth Kingdom heritage." Tenzin said to Lin more than anybody. He walked over to put his hands on her shoulders. She tensed. "Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. There really is no harm in letting them help you. I was overreacting and I see that now. I guess I was-"

"Can we talk about this later?" Lin growled, cutting him off.

Tenzin sighed in defeat. "Yes, I suppose...Will you guys be in in time for evening tea?"

"Yeah, we're almost done," Lin replied bending off the new uniform and replacing all the excess and metal scrap back into the box in which it all came.

"We'll I'll see you all inside soon," Tenzin said taking his leave.

"Are you made at my dad?" Jinora asked with genuine concern.

"No more than I usually am,"

"Do you guys not like each other?"

Lin took a deep breath with her hands on the black fabric that she just placed inside the box on top of the scrap metal. "We're just, very different from each other. Most of the time it is a good thing, we balance each other out, but sometimes we disagree. It is normal."

"He always disagreed with my mom too, but it always ended very differently than his disagreements with you,"

"How so?"

"She always ended up crying."

"I'm sorry, kid. It must have been hard."

"I am really glad you're here now!" Jinora said leaping over the desks with a gust of wind, trusting Lin to catch her.

"I'm really glad you're here too, kid. I am!" Lin replied returning the embrace.

"So can we see you in the new armor?" Opal asked trying to diffuse the tension.

"Sure," Lin placed Jinora back on the desk and bent the legs and knee pads first over her socks, shin bindings and black pants. Then she threw the simple black slip over her head and turned her back to the armor. She threw her arms forward bending the back plate onto her body as the chest plate flew over her head. Then she pulled the gauntlets up her arms and threaded the cables through her sleeves.

"It looks so nice!" Opal exclaimed. "Can we go show everybody on the island?" Opal asked.

"Woah there, I don't know yet."

"Well if it is going to be adopted by the police force, the whole city will see it eventually. Maybe you could even try it out and spar with some of the Zaofu guards and White Lotus sentries!" Opal suggested.

"Fine! Okay," Lin smiled and watched as the two girls ran off to find the captain of the guards and ask for their greatest fighters to spar with the Chief of Police. They ended up missing evening tea, opting instead to watch Lin terrorize the young guards in the sparring arena with her new armor. It wasn't until the sun had already set and moon began to rise that Lin became tired enough to sit and rest.

"Never stop learning, even after you become a master of your element," she said to the two girls as she took a few gulps of water before splashing it on her face.

* * *

"A word, Lin," Tenzin called appearing in the door of the room that Jinora, Ikki, Rohan, Lin and Opal were all sharing since the girls' dormitory burned. She glanced at him and followed, still wearing the new uniform.

"I was just wondering if you could.. If we..."

"Spit it out already!"

"If we could perhaps... discuss with each other our options before making such big decisions like the children's ctraining.."

"We did talk about that and agreed they'd spend five days with you and one with me.."

"I mean with the guard and everyone else just sort of coming. I was hoping to ask that we have more, open channels of communication and—"

"Look, I have no problem telling you what's on my mind, but you need to speak up too, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a sputtering wall that can fly,"

Tenzin sighed. She was right. He always got flustered when he spoke with her. It was like they were children again. He liked her too much and just wanted to please her. But she was so confident and headstrong and he was taught to just go with the wind and avoid conflict while she was taught to face everything head on.

"It will take time, but I'm sure we'll manage. We always have in the past," she said placing a reassuring arm on his shoulder.

They walked back to the girls room. Lin bent her armor off into the corner of the room in a messy heap of metal then pulled the black slip over her head. She could sense Tenzin still in the doorway watching as she removed her tank top and pants.

"Don't you have paperwork to review?" She asked pausing.

"Sorry," He said hurrying off. She shook her head and proceeded to remove her pants and bindings and change into her sleep clothes.

"How did you get all of your scars?" Ikki asked pointing at her back as she pulled on her night shirt. Lin turned and looked in the mirror. She was pretty torn up back there.

"Most of the burns I got when I was imprisoned by the Agni Kai Triad," Lin sighed.

"What?"

"How?"

"When?"

"I was fifteen years old and had snuck out of the academy like so many times before and they snatched me up. They were trying to get to my mom. They wanted revenge since she locked up pretty much all of their leaders and half of their best men. They were pretty rough but it wasn't anything Katara couldn't heal."

"And what about the straight line scars?"

"Most of those I got from my mom when we began training with the cables so I could join the police force. Then the rest from various altercations with other gangs."

"Woah,"

"But it's doesn't matter. Nobody ever sees it anyways,"

"What about the one on your face?"

"That one is complicated." Lin said covering it with her hand for a moment.

* * *

The next day Lin went to the police station in her old uniform and brought the new one to present to the council and the next highest rank at the Police Force. It was approved unanimously when she showed them the new features and explained how they would help in the field. Just in case, she had every officer go through forty hours of training in it before allowing them to wear it into the field.

Within ten days of the new armor being introduced to the field, the number of police injuries decreased and the number of successful arrests of triad members increased ten fold. With most of the notorious leaders, and most accomplished murderers imprisoned in platinum, ice, or wooden cells, Triad Activity nearly ceased.

In month following, the Republic City Police only made four arrests, three for robberies and one drunken assault.

Maybe... just maybe... they could all rest in a new era of peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the ideas for this story included a few OCs and some huge new conflict, and definitely grew outside what it was originally supposed to be. It is no longer about just Lin becoming motherly to the children and them growing increasingly attached to her and she arguing with Tenzin over what is best for them and them eventually getting married. 
> 
> Story may or may not be continued, but following this is "Because Bending is a Burden" where I came up with a new enemy/group to explore. Stay tuned! This may be continued Don't forget to leave a review! All criticism is welcome :)))


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